Metro 2033 Review - PC

Game Description: In post-apocalyptic Moscow, the city's expansive metro system serves as humanity's last refuge from the toxic and deadly wastelands the world's surface has become. In this gritty and atmospheric first-person shooter, players will be tasked with venturing into the dangerous and terrifying underground world in the hopes of protecting humanity from annihilation.

Metro 2033 Review

Based on a Russian sci-fi novel, Metro 2033 is a post-apocalyptic first person shooter with a scary vibe. While it has some good ideas behind it and good mechanics in it, the game is just not as scary -- or solid -- a shooter as it should've been.

The Pros

Rich post-apocalyptic vibe.

Good mix of scares and shooting.

Fun bits of cat & mouse gunplay.

The Cons

Could've been scarier.

Should've been a better shooter.

Would've benefited from more typical controls.

When done right, a bombed out city -- especially if said bomb is atomic -- can be an evocative and engaging place to set a video game, one that can add a real air of dread and loneliness.

Such is the case with Metro 2033, a post-apocalyptic action game made by 4A Games, a Ukrainian game studio founded by former GSC Game World employees who left that studio a year before GSC released S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl in 2007. However, while the game has a good mix of scares and shooting, it sadly doesn’t do either as well as it could.

Monkey Business

Based on the 2002 science fiction novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky, (which may or may not have taken a cue from Terry Gilliam’s 1995 movie 12 Monkeys, a movie which, perhaps not coincidentally, was partially set in 2035) Metro 2033 is set in Moscow after that city, and the rest of the Earth’s surface, is rendered uninhabitable by an atomic holocaust. Well, rendered uninhabitable by humans, that is. The persistent nuclear radiation has created some unfriendly mutants, and they like the surface just fine.

Unfortunately for you, they like where you live as well. You’re name is Artyom, and you’re a young Muscovite who’s lived his entire life underground in the Exhibition metro station. That is, until you’re asked you to deliver a message to a different subway stop. And with that, you toss aside your friends, your family, and your guitar to run a fool’s errand that will probably get you killed. Though really, where would videogames be without fool’s errands?

At its core, Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter. But anyone expecting a never-ending series of gun battles will be sorely disappointed. Instead of being an action-packed gun-blazer, this is actually closer to Doom 3, in that it spends as much time trying to scare you as it does trying to kill you.

When you do get into a gunfight, however, the game can vary greatly. In face-offs with mutants, the action is pretty straightforward: shoot anything that moves, since it’s probably coming at you with its claws at the ready. Things are decidedly more interesting, however, when your enemies are fellow survivors. Most of your encounters with unfriendly humans occur in areas that aren’t well lit, and you can use that to your advantage. As a result, these more stealthy shootouts feel like tense games of cat & mouse. There are also some engaging if typical on-rails shooting, and we do mean “on-rails,” since they happen while you’re in a trolley car that’s moving along some old subway tracks.

Now, some might complain that your guns aren’t as powerful as their counterparts in other games, which can be a problem since ammo isn’t especially plentiful. But this not only fits the game conceptually, it also forces you to think stealthily, strategically, and conservatively when people are shooting at you, as you may notice in human vs. human encounters. Though it’s irritating that you don’t automatically switch weapons when the one you’re using runs out of ammo. While most of the action is of the shooting variety, there are other elements at work here, including some minor platforming, having to scavenge for supplies, and rare side objectives.

But the most interesting of these is that there are places -- spots underground as well as everywhere you go on the surface -- where the atmosphere is toxic. But while you have a gas mask, you still need to keep moving since, like everything, fresh air filters are in short supply. These scenarios add an air of immediacy that’s a nice change from the game’s normal slower, exploratory pace. Though it all becomes moot if, while wearing it in a battle, your mask gets destroyed.

“And Just When He Starts to Make You Nervous / Suddenly He Starts to Cry”

Despite all the great moments of tension-building, Metro 2033 still comes up short. It’s not a bad game, but it could’ve been much better. For starters, the game isn’t as scary as it could be. 4A’s team don’t do much with the sound design -- the cornerstone of a great horror game -- and even less with the side and/or back speakers if you have a surround sound system. Which means that, unlike such frighteners as the Silent Hill series or Dead Space, you won’t have any problem playing this late at night. It’s a genuinely blown opportunity.

It also falls short as a suspenseful shooter. While some of the gunfights against humans are interesting for having the aforementioned stealth element, they’re sometimes undermined by poor A.I., which turns what should be games of cat & mouse into games of cat & broken chew toy. Still, fighting people is more interesting than fighting mutants, since most of those latter gunfights aren’t especially frantic. Sure, they sometimes attack from all sides, but usually they just come straight at you, and never in big numbers, which makes these battles feel like shooting galleries.

There are also some control issues. The game boasts a number of different button configurations, but none are optimal, especially if you play a lot of first-person shooters and expect the buttons to be mapped a certain way. Option #4, for example, uses old reliable “X” for reloading, but the unfamiliar “Y” to crouch and the awkward right bumper to jump. But the least understandable (albeit also least detrimental) issue is that, despite its literary roots, Metro 2033 lays out its story terribly. This is especially problematic when things start to get kind of trippy for reasons that seem to have been left back in the original novel.

Le Dernier Métro (The Last Metro)

Ultimately, how you feel about Metro 2033 will really depend on your expectations. If you’re looking for a Fallout 3-style epic adventure, you’ll think this is a shallow shooter. If you’re looking for a Modern Warfare 2-ish adrenaline rush, you’ll think this is slow. If you’re looking for some Silent Hill-esque frights, you’ll think this is tame. But if you’re looking for something in between, you could do a lot worse. It’s just difficult not to think some things could have been better in Metro 2033.

Comments are Closed

I would've given it a 4/5. My only real problems were the bad human AI and the fact that some of the monsters just seem to absorb bullets without dying. The controls are actually pretty easy to get used to (but don't try to go play Call of Duty of Bad Company 2 directly afterwards.)

G4 is such a mainstream site im so sick of them ill stick to attack of the show and theyre game previews..they all have very bad taste in video games and get paid to rate the top games high scores im sick of the video game industry these days attracting mainstream "gamers" when they dont even know anything about video games all i hear nowadays is oo the graphics ooo this is amazing look at that tree its so realllll what the hell happened to GAMEPLAY ??. im sick of it ...!Dont ever read a review about a game or a movie 9 times out of ten its not true... hence the old saying opinions are like aholes everyones got one.....Play ior watch for yourself and if you dont like it then you dont like it but always try yourself first hand..now commence the flames!!!

"The game boasts a number of different button configurations, but none are optimal, especially if you play a lot of first-person shooters and expect the buttons to be mapped a certain way. Option #4, for example, uses old reliable X for reloading, but the unfamiliar Y to crouch and the awkward right bumper to jump."

Did the reviewer got a different verison of Metro? Cause the buttons are right where they should be, like you press B to crouch and A to jump. I got no problems with the controls except for one that you don't have a one-button press to access your knife, you have to cycle to through it. But I heard there's an update for that, which I diidn't download yet.

I'm suspecting (and I could be wrong) that who ever wrote this review for Sessler to "read" did not play the full game all the way through. That's because I woulda given it the same review..... had I not put much time into it! Honestly, the game within its first level looks like a disaster waiting to happen. But after that, it get's surprisingly good and addictive. The line-up of weapons (though not large) are unique and fun to use, and the game requires you to be more tactical in your approach. So comparisons to MW2 are idiotic.

The biggest drawback are the bugs. Now it's odd that a show so "brutally honest" about such flaws fails to mention this. This only proves that they barely touched it. C'mon "Should've been a better shooter" ??!!?? That's the laziest @##$%'n critique man has given since they stopped dragging their knuckles against rocks and sand dunes....

It's just a shame the lazy reviewing going on as of late. I understand the temptation - some of the more "blockbuster" games are out, so lets skimp over this one. Can you blame them though? You can rarely find x-play on at primetime anymore - so I guess half the staff is consumed finding as many old clips of Cops and Ninja Warrior to broadcast, oppose to doing full reviews....

really_another_sequel? -> plenty of reasons to nerd rage. They provide reviews on games that influence a persons decision wether or not to buy a game. They influence a relatively large audience, so for 4AGames a bad review is a big deal. This review would have the affect of making a person buy a number of games over it, when really this game should be very high on a persons list of games to play. This is why i 'nerd rage' at xplay and ign with undeserved reviews. ie refer to -> insomniA220

Harix -> yeah agree with you on a number of points especially AI. I remember that now. If you get up close they dont turn and shoot at you particularily fast, you can run around them and confuse them very easily, for human ai that is. Which makes me get confused with ign and xplay that say its not a run and gun game, vs humans playing run n gun is in many cases the most effective way to play cause the ai is slow to react. I take back what I said on AI, i think 4AGames did this to make the animations look as good as they could, maybe.

Agree on the story aswell, as ive said its no DeusEx but still what it does is decent and is improved and enrichened by the game engine and detail of environments.

Rion Vanguard -> its a story, more of an adventure, it tries to show how humanity would sort itself out giving the circumstanes of nuclear holocaust. It focuses more on humans then zombie/monster killing. Doesnt go entirely for scares, tries to retell ideas the novel explores.

ign also gave this a bad review and im astounded by a minority of bad marks its recieved. metacritic is an extremely good judge of the majoritys opinion on somthing, they gave it a 77/100, thats a score im happy to see and on metacritic is very hard to achieve. Re-review this or comment! its undeserved, what did 2033 do to you!?

Onto my argument to points mentioned by reviewer. Ill mention a few cons first, i mentioned more cons in my reply to ign's review.

-----cons----i agree with killing the monsters arent as fun as people, when you hit the humans there are great injury and death animations and u know wen u hit. vs monsters you dont know, not even much of a blood spatter, monsters move and look great, but not as fun to fight.

I agree with point on sound, i think thers an issue here, however im not sure if this will be remedied in a patch. I had lots of issues getting sound right, it seems there is a configuration it works well in. Using stero headphone setup it worked well but i cldnt get music and other ambient effects playing with 5.1 surround sound, might b my pc but other games automatically do it.

----pros----

What was with the 12 monkeys reference? Isnt there a lot of movies and literature that 2033 cld be based on, i dont c why you point this out in particular. Is also slap in a face to the author who has reportedly won awards for his work (referenced from wikipedia but i think is true)

The doom3 comparation baffled me. ..."in that it spends as much time trying to scare you as it does trying to kill you." ... Really? I strongly disagree, it spends its time trying to build a convincing environment, a rich world. Its telling a story and taking the player on a journey.

oh and also..., mm

Why the *##@#!@#!@ do we want another Doom3 clone?!?!??, weve had Doom FPS shooter clones for 10+ years what makes you think we would want more shooting monsters and less engrossing environments and less story?? Look at every title on your score database thats =>3/5 and ask me that just maybe it needed more attempt at good story and convincing environments and a little less mindless shooting.

You seem to think the game cant be played running and gunning? Well i think you should play it on PC, form what ive read in reviews it seems the console holds this title back in a lot of ways, controls being another.

You dont like an auto weapon switch?? How hard is it to switch your weapon, how many shooters have you played??

Gas Masks. "Though it all becomes moot if, while wearing it in a battle, your mask gets destroyed." This is great! It never gets totally destroyed but how suspensful and immersive is it. Great feature.

Broken AI? Give examples, i had broken ai with monsters a few times but this was due to me bugging them and should be able to do this in most games, ie, jumping on tables or area where a monster cant hit you, just out of reach. Humans seemed fine, people have mentioned bad AI on humans but honestly show me examples! They move around and get to good spots.

Now I agree things could have been done better, but I think its still a 8/10 satisfying expereince. This shooter is absolutley up there with fallout3, hl1, Deus Ex, not for its story so much, but its gfx and environments which have set a new industry standard. A great title has a great hallmark that puts it in its place.

BUSHIDOw01f said it well. In my words, this is a straight linear journey, this game isnt like Deus Ex, Fallout 3, its more like HL1. Theres only one way to go, you fight things solve puzzles. Its a traditional adventure shooter and of its kind its one of the best.

ok i got this game insted of avp frist this game is realy good it is way better than fallout 3 the feal of the game is good and the contrules r weird the shoutting is fun lot of diffrents enmay types the story i thick is good it could have been scary also i dont get the parts when you see the dark ones

There's A LOT of hidden depth in this game, which is awesome and unexpected from a linear shooter like this. It's also very immersive and offers a surprising variety of gameplay without feeling haphazard about it. I'd say that this is a game that knows what it is and excels at it: the story of a unique, but by no means godly, individual who just wants to save his home but ends up stumbling into and becoming the deciding factor in a matter greater than himself and one that he doesn't fully comprehend.

In short, it isn't perfect, but it deserves a better review than this one (which other sources provide, thankfully)

"There are also some control issues. The game boasts a number of different button configurations, but none are optimal, especially if you play a lot of first-person shooters and expect the buttons to be mapped a certain way. Option #4, for example, uses old reliable X for reloading, but the unfamiliar Y to crouch and the awkward right bumper to jump."

when is the "right bumper" ever used to "jump" in a pc game?never! xplay stop copy pasting your xbox360 reviews for multi-platform gameson your keyboard, space is jump, c or ctrl is crouch and r is reload

Could've been scarier.Should've been a better shooter.Would've benefited from more typical controls.

These are all terrible cons! Why? Subjectivity, for all you know to some one out there this could've the scariest best shooter with the best to controls. But as far as the controls go I might be willing to agree with you on that, in fact I know this game benefits from more typical controls such as WASD and LMB,MMB and RMB.

It really depends oh what type of game you are looking for. It's a completely different type of game than Dead Space. Dead Space is one of my favorite games all time, so is Half-life and Bioshock. Blend all these games together and you get Metro 2033. This game is dripping with atmosphere and attention to detail. The developers wen't so far as to make the watch that you use display real time, it shows the your actual time zone time. I know that has nothing to do with game play but it just showed me how much thought they put in to this game. It does have it flaws. The gun play isn't as tight or fast paced as a triple-A game, but then again it goes far deeper in immersion and atmosphere than those games. The scares are decent, but that really depends on how you play they game...alone, big sound, and lights off? You might jump in your seat a few times. I sure did. I can't say enough good things about this game. It is far from perfect, but it's a hell of a ride.

Awww maaann....I wanted to get this game for the scare-factor (since there aren't a lot of recent, decent Horror-shooters), but the reviewer says it isn't all that scary (especially not as scary as Dead Space, which I'm a big fan of). Seems like only a Rent, now.

For those who've played Metro 2033, how would you rate/describe the scare-factor of this game?And/or how does it's scare-factor hold up to other games like Dead Space, and/or the FEAR series?

I really want to give this one a try, especially since it's based off of a novel [A fact which piques my curiosity & interest - games based off of books - and how well they translate, from book to game].

BigNlack i understand if you dont agree with me that is your opinion and ill give u that much. But to flame me just proves your ignorance. the rating system is out of 5. Did i blow your mind, did i leave you behind with all that computing? 3/5 is an average medoker score, this game is not medoker or average. So that leaves a 4 so WOW thats how i found my answer. By giving this game credit more people will realize that this a above average game and invest their time and money to check it out

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